ITALY - Meetup card

Thank you Valentine.

ITALY - Cathedral of Milan

Thanks to Fredrico for the swap.

The Cathedral of Milan

This is part of UNESCO site of the Szvoy Residences: The Royal Palace in the cenre and Madama Palace on the right

ITALY - Art

Beautiful old France stamps.  Thanks Vincenzo!

ITALY - Madonna di Senale

Altar of the sanctuary Madonna di Senale.
Thanks to Lamberto for the card and used stamps.

ITALY - Sanctuary of Pietralba

Sanctuary of Pietralba.  The church and the convent.  Thanks to Rebecca for the card.

The history of this pilgrimage site begins in 1533 with the discovery by farmer Leonhard Weißensteiner of an alabaster pietà. The construction of the pilgrimage church started in 1638. The church was consecrated in 1673, the monastery was built in 1722. The place, which originally was a place for Confession and only infrequently visited by priests, was taken over by the Servites in Innsbruck in 1718.

In 1787 the pilgrimage site was dissolved by Emperor Joseph II. The pietà was moved to Laives, the Servites were removed, and all property and treasures sold. The church was deconsecrated and served as a barn and storage room for wood and other items. In 1836 the pilgrimage site was purchased back by the Servite Order in Innsbruck, partly on request by the many pilgrims, and the place became a pilgrimage site once more, a place of prayer and an oasis of silence. 

In the time of fascism the German monks were replaced by Italian ones and the pilgrimage site was given to the Servite Order in Vicenza, which still looks after it now. High points of the story of this South Tyrolean pilgrimage site were the elevation of the place of pilgrimage to a basilica minor in 1985 and the visit by Pope John Paul II on 17 July 1988. Today Pietralba is still a popular destination for pilgrims walking the pilgrimage routes from Aldino, Monte San Pietro, Nova Ponente or Laives.

Source

ITALY - Firenze Panorama

Thanks to Stefania for the card.

"Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,084 inhabitants in 2013, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area. 

Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to the prestige of the masterpieces by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini."

ITALY - Marsala, Sicily

From Nadine, thank you for the card.

ITALY - Basilica Pontificia Di San Nicola, Bari

Thanks to Francesco for the card.

"The Pontifical Basilica di San Nicola (Basilica of Saint Nicholas) is a church in Bari, southern Italy that holds wide religious significance throughout Europe and the Christian world. The basilica is an important pilgrimage destination both for Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians from Eastern Europe.

The basilica was built between 1087 and 1197, during the Italo-Norman domination of Apulia, the area previously occupied by the Byzantine Catapan of which Bari was the seat. Its foundation is related to the recovery of some of the relics of Saint Nicholas from the saint’s original shrine in Myra, in what is now Turkey."

The card matching the stamp at the back.

ITALY - Basilica Di San Marco

This Cathedral look majestic! Thanks Paola for the card.

The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark, commonly known as Saint Mark's Basilica, is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. It lies at the eastern end of the Piazza San Marco, adjacent and connected to the Doge's Palace. Originally it was the chapel of the Doge, and has only been the city's cathedral since 1807, when it became the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, formerly at San Pietro di Castello.

For its opulent design, gold ground mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power, from the 11th century on the building has been known by the nickname Chiesa d'Oro (Church of gold).

ITALY - Poggio A Caiano (Prato)

This card shows the village in Tuscany. On the left is Villa Ambra; on the right two churches in Poggio a Caiano.  Thanks to Paula for the card.

"Poggio a Caiano is a town and comune in the province of Prato, Tuscany region Italy. The town lies 9 kilometres (6 mi) south of the provincial capital of Prato."

GERMANY - Italian Alley

Thanks to Nicole for the card.

ITALY - Santa Glustina, Basilica

Thanks to postcrosser Paola for the card.

"The Abbey of Santa Giustina is a Benedictine abbey in the center of the City of Padua, facing the Prato della Valle, which dates from the 10th century. The abbey is attached to the Basilica of Santa Giustina, which was built in the 6th century. Its present shape derives from construction in the 17th century.

The abbey is attached to the basilica which was built in the 520s by the Prefect Opilius to house the remains of St. Justina of Padua (d. 7 October 304) and of other Christian martyrs of the city. The building, with its lavish decorations, was described in 565 in a Life of St. Martin written by Venantius Fortunatus. By the 10th century, the presence of a monastic community which served the many pilgrims who came to the basilica to pray to the saints whose relics were contained there is seen in the decision of the Bishop of Padua in 971 to place the community under the Rule of St. Benedict."

ITALY - Grado

Andrea sent this card from the Grado city on her holiday.  Thanks Andrea for the thought..

"Grado is a historic seaside town located on a lagoon island along Italy's north-east Adriatic coast, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. The town, which has a population of 9,000, is in the Province of Gorizia and is very near the head of the Adriatic Sea. It is frequently described as a northern relative to Venice; at one time it was the more important of the two towns. Like Venice, Grado was populated as the inhabitants of mainland Roman settlements fled into the lagoons to escape successive invasions. After the sixth-century fall of the Roman city of Aquileia, an important early centre of Christianity, Grado became the seat of the Patriarch or Archbishop who was reponsible for the Adriatic lagoon islands and for Istria."

ITALY - Venice

Venice  is a city in northeastern Italy sited on a group of 117 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture, and its artworks. The city in its entirety is listed as a World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon."

ITALY - Rome

"Rome is the capital of Italy and also of the Province of Rome and of the region of Lazio.

The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of Tiber river. Vatican City is an independent country within the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city: for this reason Rome has been often defined as capital of two states."

ITALY -Piadina Romagnola

Thanks to Gloria for the recipe card of Piadina Romagnola.

ITALY - Udine

"Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (Alpi Carniche), less than 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Slovenian border."

ITALY - Livorno

 Thanks to Gabriela for the swap.